How to deal with LinkedIn timing out

Some weeks ago I started noticing how I could not browse some LinkedIn pages. I could log in and maybe browse some profiles, but I could not take some basic actions such as sending invites or publishing recommendations.

At first I thought they were having problems and decided to wait. But then I noticed I could browse all pages from work. Strangely, using the same computer worked in the office but not at home. I decided to try some of the basic steps. I tried Firefox, Safari and Chrome, I deleted all cookies and erased the browser cache. Nothing seemed to work.

I tried downloading the pages with curl and monitoring the connection with tcpdump. I discovered the problem was with https pages. After some research I found some forums where users were having the same problem. Apparently LinkedIn's routers are configured so that they time out very quickly and that is going to happen if you're using a slow computer or connection (I am behind a 10mbps DSL line, though).

The solution: change the MTU settings of your connection. Use a smaller value than the default (default is 1500 byte, I lowered it to 1000 byte). You can do it by changing your router's settings or by configuring the connection from your computer. Here is a screenshot of how it looks like under Mac OS X (just go to system preferences -> network -> ethernet/wifi -> advanced):



It worked for me! Now I can browse LinkedIn without it timing out and everything is working very smoothly!

It is however the first time I have to change my connection settings in order to be able to browse a website. I am assuming this is a temporary change and I am expecting LinkedIn to fix this as soon as possible.